Chapters
Jewish War, also known as the Judea uprising, broke out in 66 CE and was an attempt at the independence of the Jews from the power of the Roman Empire.
Background of events
The Jews have long tried to free themselves from the yoke of Rome. Initial successes always raised the morale of the insurgents, but when the emperor paid more attention to the uprising, he sent an army that was always able to defeat the enemy.
Judea became a Roman province after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE. He was a pro-Roman ruler who considered Italy his second home. However, as an admirer of Roman customs, he was not well-regarded among the people, and his death caused a huge increase in protests and uprisings against the Roman occupiers. The Emperor of the time Octavian Augustus responded immediately by sending an army to Judea headed by the legate Syria Varus. He brutally and quickly suppressed the uprising so that a similar incident would not happen in the future. Emperor Augustus recognized Judea as a Roman province, which was to calm the temper of the rebels. However, the Jews did not think to give their country over to occupation.
The defeat of the previous rebellion only intensified the protests, which from 4 CE intensified from year to year. The riots were only temporary, but they were to turn into an open anti-Roman rebellion in the future.
Rise
In 66 CE, a Jewish uprising against Rome broke out in Caesarea in Judea and quickly spread to all of Judea. The outbreak of the uprising was provoked by the Greeks who sacrificed birds in front of the entrance to the local synagogue. In response, one of the Jewish temples ceased praying and sacrificing in honour of the Roman emperor. Moreover, dissatisfaction with taxes was growing. These events sparked a wave of hatred among the Jews who began attacking random Roman citizens and looking for “traitors” in Jerusalem.
The unrest was decided by the prosecutor Gesjus Florus. At his command, Roman soldiers stormed the rebellious temple and seized seventeen talents from the tabernacle treasury, claiming that the money belonged to the emperor. This situation enraged the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem once again. Florus began to be ridiculed, claiming that he was poor and needed a livelihood. Even a “collection” was inaugurated – a basket was handed over to each other, into which money was thrown. On this information, Florus ordered his soldiers to break into the city and arrest the opposition leaders, who were beaten and crucified. Interestingly, many of the people had Roman citizenship.
In response, the Jews, led by a nationalist faction, attacked and captured the Roman garrison in the city. The rebellion in Judea was attempted by King Chalcis, Herod II Agrippa, who was subordinate to Rome:
However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have laboured earnestly in old time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never have been subject to it would have been just; but that slave who hath been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a refractory slave, than a lover of liberty.
– Josephus Flavius , Jewish War, II.16.4
Eventually, however, Herod II and his sister Berenice fled to Galilee.
The Jews, after taking over the city, began the process of removing Roman symbols from public spaces and removing Roman officials. Meanwhile, the radical Jewish party – the Sicarius – captured the Roman garrison in Masada by surprise and captured a well-fortified stronghold.
The outbreak of the anti-Roman uprising, however, was not entirely consistent. There were strong divisions among the Jews between those who wanted liberation and those who wanted to cooperate with the Romans.
The Legate of Syria Gaius Cestius Gallus rushed together with the army of the XII Fulminata legion, an additional two thousand soldiers from the 3rd Gallica, IIII Scythica and VI Ferrata, six cohorts and four cavalry squads. His army was also accompanied by contingents of auxiliary troops provided by allied kings. The army, however, was ill-equipped, undisciplined, and poorly commanded. The legate immediately went to the walls of Jerusalem and began the siege. However, he did not expect such strong resistance from the Jewish insurgents who inflicted several severe defeats on him. He himself could not make his way through the first line of fortifications, and such a large city (Jerusalem was said to have had about 1,000,000 inhabitants) was surely well-stocked. There was enough food for a very long siege, and the walls were enormous. So Gallus decided to break the siege and retreat to Syria. However, the Jews followed the legate, destroying his army from the rear and trapping him; especially in the Beth Horon valley. As a result, he lost 5,800 legionaries in an unsuccessful reaction to the uprising. The legion XII Fulminata, commanded by Caesenius Gallus, lost its legionary